Homespun Helpers is beginning a third year of hand-crafting items for charities. Our goal is to be a source of crafted items that charities need in order to better help people. Whether it's a hat for Afghans for Afghans or an afghan for Afghan for Angels, we are willing to provide existing charities with whatever will help them let others know they are loved.

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Homespun Helpers Elections

I have been doing some thinking, and I have come to an important conclusion. I think that we are big enough and strong enough that we need to become a bit more, well, organized. When Julie and I started Homespun Helpers almost 2 years ago now, I don't think we really even thought it would get off the ground. Now, here we are, with over 200 members, 4 different sites (Ravelry, Facebook, Livejournal, and Blogspot), tremendous people, and over 6,000 items handmade for charities. And yet, things are still running the way they were then, i.e., I am for some reason trying to do everything. I think that is starting to become a handicap rather than something awesome :)

So, what I would like to do is begin an election process for a few different positions that would begin 1/1/09. Those positions are:

Vice President of Communications: This person would work with me on the pending e-newsletter (contributing content, etc), building a web site, contacting other charities to see if they would want to work with us or to see if any of their members would want to join us, and probably other things I'm not thinking of right now.

Vice President of Development : This position would involve working with me on coming up with goals (weekly, monthly, whatever), keeping those goals organized, keeping running drives organized, and finding ways to encourage active participation both online and even offline!

Vice President of the "Treasury": I want to continue to shy away from taking monetary donations. We are not an official "organization" by the government's terms and applying for 501c3 status is just too darned expensive and complex as of now. But, what this person would do is work with me to find a not-for-profit partner that would be willing to work with us the way the Friends Society has paired with Afghans for Afghans. This position would also be responsible for assisting me in organizing and gathering supplies, both for drives and for people who may want to participate but who feel economically pitched and don't feel they can go out and get yarn and what-not that they need.

Over the next month, I will be taking names for nomination. I would like for all of this to be very public. If you see that you are nominated for a position and you don't want to do it, please say so as soon as you can. Yes, you can nominate yourself, but only for one position. All nominations must specify the title that you think that person would be suited for.

If this gets ugly in any way, the election process will be over and this idea will be null and void.

I will announce nominees for each position on December 1st and I'll accept votes until December 15. Winners will be announced on December 16. Voting will be done in some way that is confidential, but I need to think about that :)

If anyone has any questions or concerns about this, please let me know.